


time grabs you by the wrist

by dustywords



Series: tale of vicious circles [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, because the finale was no time travel, fixing the time travel, the show should look up what time travel means, then again the show should look up a lot of things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 07:39:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2301761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dustywords/pseuds/dustywords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma Swan really didn't plan to be forced to do a time travel journey with her son, a ghost that makes stupid puns about death and an imp that giggles about everything and talks a lot with himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	time grabs you by the wrist

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be a one shot. but then i kept finding plot holes and now it is a series that kind of tries to fix things the show messed up. 
> 
> the amount of puns in this piece is entirely the fault of kirkmills. there is no conversation possible between us without it escalating into caps lock and a battle of puns.

He regards her with cold eyes, before he makes his presence known. She is sitting in that cell, the punishment the good ones agreed on. He feels a thin smile crawl upon his lips. They don’t really have a say in what happens to her. Her fate was set in stone a long time ago; when he was still just the Dark One who manipulated those around him.

She mistakes him as Regina. How pathetic, as if the former Evil Queen truly would find it within her to come by every five minutes. Then again, that foolish woman has an alarming tendency to love the wrong people, to rely on false information.

Pixie dust. That’s a good one.

He takes his time, takes one, two steps forward, before he breaks the silence.

“Hello, dearie.”

*

“I don’t understand.” Confusion colors his young features and he knits his forehead. “This is our home, Emma. Why would we leave all of that behind?”

The dirt scrunches unnaturally loud underneath her boots while she paces up and down in front of Henry. The snow melted away a few days ago and only the crisp winter air stayed. She embraces herself and tries to determine the exact moment when she decided that her brown leather jacket and the black beanie would be enough to make it through the cold day.

And then she sighs, because Henry’s eyes are still on her face, looking up to her from his spot on the bench. They are in the park, far away from prying eyes. “Don’t you miss the time we had?” she asks tentatively, not really sure what she expects in return.

Henry blinks. Despite his deep voice, he’s still so young. “But it wasn’t real. You said it yourself, before we left, before Pan’s curse arrived: that it won’t be a real happy ending, that it would be a lie.”

“That was before I knew what your mom was going to—!”

He abruptly gets to his feet. “What are you running from? Zelena is defeated! Nothing bad is going to happen now!”

She stops pacing and gives him a sad smile. “Henry,” she says and his name hurts in ways she can’t explain and god, that’s also something that confuses the hell out of her. There is still so much… _Regina_ left in her head, in her system, that sometimes she feels like she lost herself somewhere along the way back to Storybrooke. “I thought the same thing after Cora and then Neverland happened and then Peter Pan happened and…look, we keep chasing after something that isn’t here!” She raises her voice and Henry flinches.

He looks away. “That was then. It’s going to be different now.”

“But we don’t know for sure, kid.”

“Then let’s stay and find out and leave when some new villain comes!” he suggests like the sneaky little shit he is. He knows damn well that she wouldn’t be able to leave her family and friends behind if there was as much as a rumor about a new threat.

“I wish it were that easy,” she sighs and sits down on the bench. Henry follows her, their shoulders touching through their jackets. “I just…I can’t really explain it, I just want to go back to New York.” She pauses, trying to find the right words. “You don’t have to come with me, if you don’t want to. I won’t…force you to leave your mom _ever_ again,” she murmurs and remembers the last time she tried to do this. It ended with a sharp brake and an almost-car-crash, followed by an argument and a poisoned apple turnover.

Henry looks away. “You know,” he starts slowly, “we could take mom with us.” His grin is everything and she wants to stay and make him beam more often like this, but then there is that selfish part within her that wasn’t there before, not as strong as it is now, and once again she wonders if that is something that Regina gave her by accident with those precious memories. She just wants what they had back, that feeling of belonging, a real home. Despite her family being here, her parents her friends—the home in New York with their fake memories felt more real than nothing else in her life. It’s a selfish, needy wish to go back there, but she can’t help it. It’s just _there_.

She laughs softly. “She would never come with us. Not alone. And no offense, kid, but I don’t really like that Hood guy, even if his son is kinda cute.”

“Why?”

Yeah, if only she knew. (She does, but pretends otherwise, because it’s one of the things that make her run, actually.) “I won’t leave right away,” she tiptoes back to their original topic. “I’ll wait until we all take a deep breath and then…” She shrugs.

Henry takes her hand in his. “It’s okay,” he whispers and sometimes he can be so incredibly old, full of wisdom she can’t quite grasp. Henry knows how to love and has no fear to face it, to show it; she, on the other side, runs from it.

But she squeezes his hand back.

*

They continue their walk. It’s a bit less strained, less awkward. Both know where they stand now and it might not be on the same page, but it’s okay. For now, it’s alright. She’ll find a way to deal with it. Later, probably. Or somewhere along her way back to Manhattan. Doesn’t matter.

“It’s weird,” he suddenly says.

“Hm?”

“That they named him after…dad,” he clarifies and clears his throat.

Oh, that. Yeah. “Well,” she breathes and she really doesn’t know what to reply to this. It’s one of the things she’s chosen to ignore for the time being.

“Are you mad?”

“Should I be?” She knows the answer to that. It’s a loud and resounding _YES_ in her head, but she’s tired of fighting everything all the time. Better to smile and pretend to be completely comfortable with their choice.

Henry tilts his head and looks at her wistfully. “Mom said—” but then he thinks better of it and just shakes his head and gazes ahead.

She’s grateful for that. She doesn’t want to know what Snow White’s former nemesis has to say about that name. Nothing good, for sure. “Don’t think too much about it,” she advises him and it’s an advice she follows with all her heart.

Henry shrugs again. “I just wondered, you know?”

Their walk is slow and nice, even if it’s still cold and windy. “It’s okay.”

“When are you going to talk to mom?”

The kid and his restless urge to make things right.

She just sighs.

*

He stalks closer, the smile still on his face. He can see her horror, her fear upon realizing that it is him who holds the real dagger. He is the one with control now, and she has nothing left.

She presses her back against the brick wall. “Wait, wait! I am powerless now!” she exclaims in a half-exasperated, half-begging voice. It’s pathetic, really. “Regina’s got the pendant…my magic is gone! I can’t hurt anyone!”

Stupid child, he thinks. “It’s not about that, trust me. It’s about what you’ve already done,” he hisses at her and for a split of a second he sees the reluctant acknowledgment of his loss.

“So this is about Neal, is it?” she breathes hard, struggling to keep her composure.

It’s endearing to witness this. “If it makes you feel better, then yes, feel free to make this all about my dead son,” he nods, wincing at the last two words. It is about Baelfire, after all. But also about so much more. “Sadly, it’s more than that,” he adds. He won’t withhold the truth from her, can’t keep it to himself. She needs to know. Everything has to be the way it was, the way he remembers it.

“Why?” she asks and her blue eyes follow his every move.

He examines his dagger in the soft light of the office. “Have you ever wondered why I taught you magic, my dear?” His voice is low, but not unfriendly. A part of him does regret the waste of her potential, the teacher within him mourns already the lost possibilities her magic offers.

“Because I was better, because I _am_ better.”

Well, at least she will die the way she lived: too proud of herself and with a high lifted chin.

But there is hesitance. “It was something else, though, I suspect,” she muses aloud, and oh, joy, how fast she learns.

He takes a chair and sits down on it, regarding her with a thoughtful look. “I am sure you are bitter about many things and I won’t blame you. You’d never understand your error if I simply told you where you are wrong,” he begins. His dagger rests on his lap. “It was never a question of ability.”

She dares to lean a little forward, meeting his gaze with curiosity. For now, the death threat is in the room, but not pointing at her. “Did you flip a coin, Rumple? Is that how you decided that it had to be my dearest little sister, who struggled with everything while I excelled at every single task you gave me?”

He chuckles darkly. “If I had a say in it, I’d have picked you,” he admits. “But I had no say in it.”

“Your riddles aren’t half as entertaining as you believe them to be,” she lectures him with a scowl. “Tell me!”

“The curse,” he simply says.

“The…the curse? That’s what made you pick her? Oh, don’t be ridiculous, she didn’t even get it right the first time!” she reminds him with a raised voice and raised brows. Her hair has a golden hue in the artificial light.

“No,” he says with impatience in his exhaled breath. “Do you know the price of this curse? The real price?”

She gives him a stunned look.

He chuckles at her expression. “I would’ve been surprised if you knew. Let me scatter away your confusion, hm?” He gives her the wide smile he is so famous for. “It’s time for me to tell you a story.”

*

She isn’t sure what they are staring at. “Do you see that glow coming from Zelena’s old barn or whatever it is?” She can see the golden light that flickers through the gap between the two old parts of the wide door that is held together by a chain and a lock. David’s idea, she thinks.

“Yeah,” he whispers. They are maybe two hundred feet away from the building and she has no real recollection of how they got here in the first place. They talked about the planned celebration party at Granny’s and how awkward it might be with Hook and Rumple and Hood in one room, all of them holding a grudge against the other (Rumple being in the center of it, because one of his hobbies is to fuck people over due to his sick sense of humor or whatever).

She takes a deep breath. “So, nothing bad is going to happen anymore,” she repeats his words with an arched brow and a low voice, mocking him with his ridiculous assumption. There is no peace in this town, no real break from all the crap that keeps haunting them.

Henry gives her a pointed look. “We don’t know what it is yet.”

“Well, I’d bet Hook’s right hand that it’s nothing good,” she grumbles and Henry rolls his eyes at her obvious annoyance with Hook. Geez, that guy got his lips cursed and he really believed that she wanted to kiss him—by her own choice, this time. No, thank you, Sir.

“Now what?”

“I’ll see what it is. Maybe it’s just…a broken lamp?” Maybe some of that Snow’s optimism, the one she mentioned back in the Enchanted Forest when they were in Rumple’s prison, is starting to creep up on her.

Henry nods, as if this is the most likely explanation. “Yeah, it could be. But I am coming with you,” he decides and there is this stubborn tone that reminds her more of Regina than herself. Nurture vs. Nature, 1:0.

“Alright,” she sighs because there is no point in fighting him. Also, his hand just gripped her wrist—what choice does she have? She is still not happy with it, though. Her stomach sinks when she looks at the glowing light.

They walk in complete silence. She’s holding her phone in her hand, just in case. Her thumb hovers over the green call button on the display with David’s icon on it when they reach the front of the building, not sure what to do now. The air feels loaded and there’s a familiar sensation tingling in the back of her head.

Magic.

The light is still streaming through the narrow gap between both halves of the door. She turns her head, but no, no light is streaming through the windows of Zelena’s house. It’s dark and empty in the distance.

“Stay away,” she orders Henry with a hushed tone, stepping closer to the chain that holds the door together. She forms a roof with her hands and leans her forehead against it to get a better look.

It’s the damn pentagram or whatever it is on the floor, flickering with golden light like a frantic heartbeat.

Shit, shit, shit.

“Be happy you didn’t bet on the peace of Storybrooke,” she tells Henry with a frown and the wish to bang her head against the wall. She looks down at David’s icon and briefly considers calling him. Instead, she dials a new number. _Regina_ _Mills_.

Voice mail.

Shit.

*

“I am sure you know the price of the curse,” he says and follows the jagged edge of his dagger’s blade with his forefinger, while he hears her swallow.

“Sacrificing the heart of the thing you love most,” she answers like the eager student she once was. Still is, perhaps. It makes things easier, he decides. “But what I gather from your cryptic words is that there was another price?”

“Is,” he underlines with resolve. “You see, there is still payment due. It is hilarious, really, how you never questioned my motives to teach you, even after you saw that I didn’t stop teaching Regina. What did you expect to happen?” He isn’t trying to delay the revelation, he is truthfully curious. How can a person be so blinded by ambition so as to miss the truth staring at them?

Zelena shifts and sits down on the cot, entangling her fingers together nervously. “I expected it to be another lesson for Regina,” she confesses, “one to teach her what disappointment and trust can do to a person”.

He sees that yes, this sounds like something he could have done.

“Well,” he clears his throat, raising his voice a little. “Before I tell you why your death is inevitable and why I still would pick Regina if I had to go back to the past, I will tell you the significance of the curse and its mechanics.”

“It’s not really that complicated, Rumple. I know what the curse does, I was brought here by a recast version of it, though I do wonder how Regina managed to cast it this time, with Henry and—”

“You understand nothing,” he interrupts her words, because he has no interest in listening to these trivial problems that trouble the woman’s mind. “You only see the obvious, but there is more to the curse and the payment. The curse made a chain of events possible that wouldn’t have happened otherwise; in other words, Regina stole time and changed the future that was assigned to those who were cursed.”

“What are you saying?” Now it’s confusion that makes her voice sound small and uncertain.

He ignores it. “The curse gave all of them time that wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place,” he continues and halts for a brief moment to gather his thoughts. “The problem is that the past had to be adjusted to make the future we live in now possible in the first place.”

He looks up and sees what he is looking for: slow realization settling in, changing the look in her clear blue eyes from confusion into one of horror. “The time portal. You bastard!” she hisses and jumps from her position up to throw herself at the bars, clutching at them with all the fury and wrath she can muster. “You tricked me!” she yells at him.

He tilts his head back slightly, his finger stops moving over the blade. “I had to,” is all he offers her for comfort. “I am honestly surprised that you didn’t catch that earlier. How could you believe I would allow you to destroy the whole purpose of this curse? Do you think I would help you deconstruct my carefully laid plans I worked on for centuries?” He stands up as well, his face only inches away from hers.

She stares at him, disbelief on her pale features. “I could’ve cast the curse for you,” she whispers.

“No, you foolish girl! Don’t you understand? No, because how would you be able to grasp the delicacy of my work, of my curse? I had to make sure that certain people would find each other, give birth to the Savior and make sure that she’d escape the curse. Regina made it possible, it had to be her, no matter how much better you were.”

He looks down at his dagger.

Zelena closes her eyes and steps away from the bars. “But if everything happened the way you wanted, why manipulate me into believing I could open a time portal and change my fate?”

He sighs deeply. “You still think it was about you, dearie. It’s not. The portal has to be opened, thus I have to kill you and make sure that the right person will go through it. Or persons, in this case,” he corrects himself, remembering very well the two people from another time he met all these years ago in the Enchanted Forest. “Besides, it was you who told me about all this,” he smiles and the last pieces of this complicated jigsaw puzzle finally fall into their right place.

“I did what? How?”

He doesn’t answer.

“Who are these people you want to go through that portal? Regina? To kill me?”

He lifts his dagger and turns it around, before he looks her in the eye, his voice nothing but a whisper. “As I said: the past has to be changed to make this version of the future possible. How would killing you accomplish that? Since we are living this future, I have to trust them to not fail on this quest.” He flicks his hand and with one swift motion, he appears in front of her in her cell, restraining her with magic against the wall. “And you will do your part in this little play.”

“But…why now…” she manages to get out, eying his hand with the dagger. Her voice trembles, as does her lower lip.

He smiles. “It doesn’t matter when they go back in time in our present time line—they just have to go back, simple as that,” he replies and stabs her with his dagger, leaning forward until his lips almost touch her ear. “And you are going to help them,” he whispers again, satisfied with himself when the smashing sound of porcelain echoes through the empty sheriff station.

Now he only has to give the savior and her son one last helpful push.

*

She wishes she could just poof them into Regina’s mansion or wherever that woman is right now that makes her miss every call. She wanted to consult someone who knows a thing or two about magic, which is why she’s not calling her parents.

Gold, she thinks bitterly. She really doesn’t want to do anything with that shady imp, but it seems like she has no real choice here.

They are jogging back to Storybrooke, when a thunder-like noise rips through the air and makes them stop. Both turn around and there it is—the cracking, golden pillar of light reaching for the sky and vanishing behind the clouds.

“What happened?” she asks disbelievingly, because they just inspected the place, and how did the flickering of light turn into _this_?

Henry just shakes his head.

“Let’s check Granny’s,” she decides, a little out of breath from their short run back to Main Street. The chances to meet Regina there are fairly high; it seems to be a common thing now for her to eat there with Robin and Roland.

Like, she doesn’t care. Really. Why would she?

She pushes these thoughts away and almost runs into Gold, who is also on his way to the diner ahead of them. She can already see the sign in the distance.

He lifts his brows and gives her an amused look. “Are we in a hurry to get a bearclaw, Miss—” He notices something behind her, the weird magic-light-thing. “What is that?” he murmurs and blinks at her.

As if she knew the answer to this one. “We kinda hoped you would know that,” she tells him and hugs Henry closer with one arm.

“I thought it was a thunderstorm coming.”

“Well, it’s not. It’s got something to do with magic,” Emma pushes on, not sure why she is in such a hurry. But the pillar of light and the constant hum of magic around her makes her nervous.

He watches between them and nods. “Does Regina know about this?”

“No, I couldn’t reach her,” she says with a huff and looks to Henry. “Maybe you should go and—”

“I don’t think that is a wise approach, Miss Swan. Our dear Regina will be trying to find a safe place for Henry before she comes to assist you.”

She blinks. “Assist me in what?”

“Closing the portal that opened for some reason… Unless, of course, Zelena somehow managed to escape from her cell,” he muses and leans on his cane.

Oh no.

“She has no magic,” Henry chimes in, still standing close to her.

“I am aware of that, which is why I am highly disturbed by the latest…events.” He sighs and lifts his gaze from Henry’s eye level to glance at her. “Since you are not yet able to use your magic for teleportation, allow me to find our new hero of the week as a means to save time and get rid of that portal as fast as possible.”

“I am coming with you,” Henry nods, already convinced by this plan. She knows that he is only choosing her over Regina here because she told him that she wants to leave Storybrooke again.

The truly pathetic part in all this, though, is that little jump her heart makes and the small smile that tugs at her lips when she touches his chin. (A gesture that doesn’t feel quite right to her, and yet somehow feels like something she did all the time. Or was that a thing Regina did…? God.)

She has a nervous feeling about this plan, but he’s right. It can’t be too good to leave a time portal open, just like that. “We’ll wait at Zelena’s house, then,” she gives in, meeting Gold’s expectant gaze.

“Very well,” Gold nods and waves with his hand, but not to vanish in a cloud himself—no, they get swallowed by it and it feels like falling and flying at the same time before she has some solid ground beneath her feet again.

Henry stumbles and leans against her. “He could’ve warned us,” he mutters and looks at the shaking walls of that barn in front of them. The chain and lock aren’t holding the doors together and they fly open and close, whenever the swirling of the portal gets stronger.

The magic in the air licks her skin and makes her shiver. It’s…unlike anything she has ever felt before. Even combining her magic with Regina’s to stop the trigger hadn’t felt this…intense. Strong, intense and dangerous. As if the portals calls her, tries to pull her closer. She takes a small step forward, another one, stretching her hands out. She isn’t sure what she’s doing, but it feels right. Meant to be. The portal, the magic—it calls her.

“What are you doing?” Henry is right next to her, his eyes wide and fixed on the bright light.

“Go back, stay there, this is danger—” But it’s already too late, the portal seems to get wider and reach for them both, getting a hold of Henry’s ankle.

“Ahh,” he hisses, falls to his knees and trying to fight the power that is sucking him into the vortex of magic. “Emma!”

For a second or two she simply stands frozen in place, her mind trapped in a haze of blankness, before she gets on the ground and grabs his hand. “I got you, just…try to work your way towards me? Use your free leg,” she huffs, not letting go of his hand.

He groans when he tries to free his leg, instead of doing what she’s just told him to. _Kid, no_. He slips further away from her, dragging her along towards the portal, his lower body almost vanished completely in it.

“Emma!”

She has seen this scene before. Neal, shortly after he was shot and then fell into that portal. Because she let him go, because she let his damn hand go. Now he’s dead anyway, but still.

“Never again,” she curses under her breath to herself and follows Henry’s scream into a goddamn time portal that seemingly opened for no reason.

Armed with nothing but a beanie, a leather jacket and a white iPhone 4S.

*

Somebody is calling her name. A female voice. Her mother? Snow? No. It sounds wrong. Regina? Nah, she wouldn’t call her by her first name to wake her up. She blinks, confused, and everything is blurry and too green. The light is all wrong. And the voice is too British.

“Wake up, for heaven’s sake. Emma!”

“She can’t hear you,” Henry mumbles.

“I can see that, young man.”

“Just sayin’.”

Emma sits up and spits some dirt out. She’s lying in the middle of nowhere, in a forest. There are trees around her and there is a familiar feeling to them. Then her eyes drift to Henry, who’s still wearing his dark blue coat, his red-grey-striped shawl and a guilty look in his face. He smiles slightly from his spot on the tree trunk where he’s sitting.

“Hey,” she clears her throat, before she notices another figure.

Zelena.

“You!” she shouts and scrambles back to her feet. “What have you done!”

Zelena gazes at her for a second, before her eye roll follows and wow, if there were any doubts about her being Regina’s half-sister, there wouldn’t be any left after this little exchange of looks. “I have done nothing,” she says in a careless way, a tone people choose to talk about the weather—or to Emma Swan.

She grits her teeth, lunges for her and—nothing. She grabbed right through her.

“She’s a ghost,” Henry says cheerfully and peels his chocolate bar (where did he get that?) from its wrapping.

“Oh,” is all that comes to her mind.

“Because I am dead,” Zelena adds helpfully, eying Henry’s candy. “You know, I don’t think you should eat that now, after you just arrived here,” she sighs, shaking her head. And then she looks at her, the silent accusation coming towards her in a wordless glare. _He’s your son, do something_.

It’s so frustrating to stare at a barely familiar face and yet she can read Zelena in a way she doesn’t want to. This woman kidnapped her little brother, killed Neal and is currently responsible for them to be on a _Back to the Future_ trip: the Enchanted Forest edition. This is bad. Really bad.

“I am hungry.”

“Obviously.” Zelena crosses her arms. She is dressed in the same clothes she wore in her little prison cell, black turtleneck and skirt, her hair knotted loosely into a bun.

She mirrors her motions, just with less grace. “But how can you…be a dead ghost?”

“And I thought Regina was joking,” the dead woman mutters under her breath and Emma narrows her eyes at that, because she doesn’t want to know when Regina found the time to have a chat with her crazy half-sister about what idiots she and her parents are. “My death opened the portal,” she continues with a more forceful voice. “And did you ever encounter a _living ghost_?”

Henry licks his fingers and gives her a puzzled look. “But who did this to you?” His voice is void of fear, anger or even disappointment. He isn’t exactly friendly to her, his look is distanced, but he is willing to listen to her. Somebody pin a medal on this kid’s jacket or something.

She’s already too pissed to care about ghost Zelena’s words.

Zelena gnaws at her lower lip. “Rumpelstiltskin,” she whispers.

“How can I be of service?”

Emma nearly falls over the fallen tree next to her when she jumps at the sound of Gold’s voice. Rumpelstiltskin’s voice. What the hell? “How did you…?”

“His name,” Henry stage whispers to her. “She said his name.” The rest of his chocolate bar dropped on the ground. He got startled too, it seems.

Zelena stares at Rumpelstiltskin with a mixture of wonder and utter hatred. Well, she just told them that he killed her, so there is that.

Rumple giggles, amused at Henry’s whispered words, and his skin is fucking golden-green. Emma doesn’t know what she expected, but it sure as hell wasn’t this weirdo who looks like he just stormed out of an asylum—or robbed a sex shop that sells leather suits and pants made out of black snakeskin.

“Aren’t you a bright boy, my young friend?” He comes closer and watches all three of them closely, before his gaze stays on Zelena’s face. “You are dead and actually invisible,” he says confused. Then he stalks closer towards her and she bristles a little when he’s right in front of her as if she fears to be stabbed any moment now and—

Oh.

“You are connected to a very strong and… dark source of magic,” he says while his hand moves over her and he has that focused expression in his dark, inhuman eyes. “You can’t leave!” he cackles amused and Zelena just stares at him with fury in her eyes. “You are dead! And yet you are not!”

“I wonder why,” she snarls at him and he immediately stops laughing.

“You all don’t seem to belong here and with her dead, I wonder what brought you to this place? His eyes examine all of them; nothing gets past his attentive stare. Like everything about this guy does, to be honest.

She feels uncomfortable and she doesn’t want Henry to stay so close to this…this imp, with his exaggerated facial expressions and that insane laughter. And why can’t he stop gesturing with his hands like this? “We’re, uhm…from the future?” She doesn’t want it to sound like a question but it kinda just happened.

Rumple laughs again. “The future!” he snorts with laughter. Then he really clasps his hands together. “What is the future like? You all seem to be familiar with me, am I there too?”

It’s like a child talking to them.

A farce, because his dark eyes…his dark eyes are so old and dangerous. She avoids looking at them. “Yeah,” she says and wonders if talking to Rumple will change the future. Did she change the future right now? Oh god. “I don’t think we should be talking to you, actually,” she says with a half-smile, because she’s too stressed, too terrified of literally the darkest version of Gold she’s ever seen. Neverland? Pah, that was nothing in comparison to _this_.

Rumple shakes his head, chuckling. “Nonsense. I have that strong feeling that this spot right here is where I should be right now. Yes, yes indeed!”

Zelena turns away from him, walking a few steps further into the forest. She wonders what his words reminded her of.

Henry looks after her. “She opened the time portal. Or, her death did.”

“And who is she?”

“Her name is Zelena,” Emma slowly says, unsure what to share with that man. She isn’t sure why Henry started to talk, either. “She’s…the first born of Cora?”

That catches his attention. Suddenly he is in her personal space and he smells like dark magic and dusty libraries. “I knew it,” he whispers, content with the not-so-new revelation and her head hurts from the fall through the portal. She wants to lie down somewhere and wait until all of this is over, instead of talking to this imp. “Tell me more,” he begs. “Tell me what the future is like. Your clothes don’t look like they are from here,” he observes and his mouth falls open with a gasp before Emma can utter one word.

She just blinks a lot and tries not to stare _too_ much at his weird skin. “Uhm…”

“I did it, didn’t I? I found someone to cast my curse. Was it Regina? Please tell me it was her, I’d loathe to waste my time with her.” He looks at Zelena, who is sitting on a tree trunk and inspecting her nails. “Or was she the one to cast it?”

“No, Regina did it,” she says and it’s like she has no real say in this, she simply has to answer him. It’s a weird feeling.

Rumple is using magic on her to get his answers. That sneaky—

“What else? Did I found my son?”

Oh-oh.

She hesitates, glancing at Henry’s concerned face, before she looks back at Rumple and sees that she waited a moment too long to reply.

“Answer me!” he thunders, glaring at her. The look in his eyes gets even more intense, if that’s possible.

She swallows. “Yeah, you…yes. Yes, you see him again.” That’s not a lie. Interestingly enough, she has to answer him because of whatever little magic trick he’s using, but it’s still up to her what exactly she tells him.

“Good,” he smiles softly at that and it’s the first time he somehow _reminds_ her of Mister Gold. At least a little. “So if the curse was cast by Regina, then…who are you?” His smile gets wider.

She looks to Henry for advice who just shrugs. “I am Emma Swan and this is my son, Henry.”

Rumple nods eagerly and waves with his hands for her to continue.

She isn’t sure if this is a good idea. But then again…they are in the past. Maybe they can’t change anything here. Maybe this is like visiting a previous chapter in a book, but it can’t alter what will follow because it already happened? Hopefully she’s right and the future is truly set in stone. “I am Snow White and Prince Charming’s daughter.”

Rumple blinks.

Breathes.

And laughs for the next five minutes.

“A part of me is tempted to hope he chokes on his giggles,” Zelena whispers darkly into her ear and shit, when did she come back and why is she so goddamn _close_ to her?

“Can you stop sneaking up behind me?” she hisses and nods to Henry to come to her, while Rumple is holding his stomach and wipes tears of laughter away.

Zelena flashes her wide smile. “I am a ghost now, dear. I have to spook people,” she winks. “Boo!”

She hates the Mills’ women so much.

All of them.

*

“Did he always talk to himself?” Henry asks Zelena and she has no idea when or how, but now they are both sitting on that fallen tree Henry sat on and she almost tripped over, and they watch Rumple pace some feet away from them, talking to himself. It looks like an interesting conversation.

Zelena makes a bored face. “All the time. He was a lonely man, I believe,” she says with a bitter layer to her words.

Emma shakes her head. “This is your fault. Why did you tell him that he killed you and that he wanted all this,” she motions with her hand between Henry and herself, “to happen?”

“Because it’s the truth. Emma, he told me everything about this time travel before I died. I believe that’s why I am here,” she says with a thoughtful sigh. “I didn’t understand it then, but I do now. He said I told him about all this. And that’s what I just did, five minutes ago.”

She feels like getting a headache. “This is so confusing,” she mumbles and rubs her hands together.

“That makes no sense!” Rumple yells at his hands.

Henry chuckles. “He’s crazy.”

“He’s the Dark One,” Zelena tells him and obviously that’s explanation enough for him, because he makes a humming sound and they drop the topic.

She feels like the third wheel in their sudden…she doesn’t even know the right word for this. Zelena is certainly not the aunt of the year, but she does give Henry curious looks, wondering maybe who this boy is that means everything to her half-sister.

She wonders if Regina found out what happened to them by now.

Probably.

*

“You are the one who breaks my curse, aren’t you?” Rumple suddenly asks, looking at her with a triumphant smile. “You broke it already. That’s why you are here and that’s why you have magic.”

She blinks in surprise. “I had magic, yeah,” she says. “How do you know?”

“No, no, dearie—I can feel it. You still have it,” Rumple tells her with a lifted finger and a bright smile. Well, it’d be brighter if his teeth weren’t this rotten. Ew. She tears her gaze away from them and looks confused at Zelena.

“The powers I took from you returned the moment I died. I put the spell on Hook’s lips, and with my death the spell died, too.”

Emma tilts her head. She didn’t even notice her magic was back, but now as she focuses on it just the way Regina taught her, she can feel it running through her bloodstream. She takes a deep breath. She feels more like herself again.

Rumple laughs again. “So, back to my question. You break my curse, am I correct?”

She nods. “I did. We did,” she says and puts her hand on Henry’s shoulder.

“They are a family business now,” Zelena adds, being everything but helpful.

Henry nudges her with his elbow, even though it goes right through her body. He doesn’t seem to notice, only Zelena shivers at the non-contact.

Rumple rolls his eyes, not paying much attention to Zelena. “Alright, so you break the curse. I gather your purpose of being here is you have to make sure that the curse happens, since we are far from being ready. I just started to reach out for Regina,” he explains with a deep chuckle. “However, I am pleased to know that she will give in and do what I want her to do.”

It makes her angry, his way of thinking that he somehow owns her, but before she can jump up and try to punch her thoughts into his smug looking face, Henry grabs her hand and squeezes it lightly. “You can’t change mom’s fate,” he whispers with sad eyes. “It’d change everything for us. The curse has to happen.” His warning words imply that he figured something out she still hasn’t.

“But…”

“We are not allowed to change the past,” he reminds her.

Rumple clears his throat. “Are we done discussing matters that cannot be altered? I’d rather try to determine how you have to proceed on your quest.”

“I still don’t get why we have to be here,” she scowls. The curse was cast and worked fine; why did Zelena tell Rumple a few minutes ago that the past has to be adjusted in a way that their future can happen? It makes zero sense. What if they never went on that time travel?

But then again, Rumple has the habit of twisting fate the way he wants it. She has to think about Cora’s death and how he manipulated Snow into doing what she did.

“Isn’t that obvious, dearest Emma?”

“Clearly not,” she gives back. Now she knows where Henry inherited his _duh_ -voice from.

“I don’t get why we have to change stuff. Why don’t you do it?” Henry throws in and yeah, that’s a pretty good point. Why isn’t the Dark One doing this bullshit, since he’ll be the one who gains…nothing. He gains nothing with the curse, because Neal is dead. But telling him this would change things, right?

Ugh.

“I don’t know _how_ to change things,” Rumple tells them. “I don’t know what the future looks like. But you know the main events that happened in the past, is that correct?”

“I do,” Henry nods eagerly. The fairytale book is once again useful, even if they don’t have it here with them. He has the most important things memorized by now.

“Wonderful!” Rumple smiles at each of them, especially at Zelena. His following words explain why. “You are the anchor to that time portal,” he says, showing his uneven teeth once more. “Meaning, you have to help them.”

“And if I don’t want to?” Zelena dares to speak up.

“You are stuck with them, so truth be told you do not have much of a choice in this matter.” His words are cruel and the amused glint in his dark eyes doesn’t go past Zelena’s somber look and flaring nostrils. “And,” he continues after a brief moment of silence, “since you are deeply connected with that time portal, you can actually be useful to us.”

“In what way?” She sounds tired, Emma thinks, and leans a little forward to get a better look at her face. “The future version of you failed to explain that part to me before he killed me.”

“I killed you?” Rumple looks truly surprised for a second there. And then he shrugs it off. “I can use the magic that is around your being or what is left of it and follow its trace: according to the theory future-me told you about, all this already happened and this is why your future could exist.”

Slowly but steadily they begin to understand their situation. Henry gives her a side glance that asks more questions than she can answer, so she just shakes her head and waits for the Dark One to stop giggling.

“What’s so funny?”

“Don’t make any mistakes. Cover your face and don’t tell anyone your name, do you understand? Both of you. You mustn’t tell anyone who you are and why you are here.” He blinks. “Don’t talk to anyone if not necessary.” He turns around, ready to go.

“Wait!” she says with a jump from the fallen tree. She shakes her head when he looks at her. “What are we going to do if we…change things?”

“You call my name, of course. Oh, I almost forgot,” he laughs and makes a weird gesture with his hands. Then he starts to mumble something under his breath and Zelena closes her eyes, a warm smile dancing on her pale lips.

“What are you doing?” Henry wants to know.

Rumple finishes his little magic show and watches the golden little bundle of light that remains motionless a few inches above the ground with a content smile. “This light will guide you, my friends. Farewell! As I am sure we will see each other again very soon.”

And then he is gone.

“He can’t be serious,” she mutters disbelievingly.

“He loves doing this,” Zelena says with a resigned voice and stares at the small ball of light. “Better get used to it.”

Henry gets to his feet, watching the light with wonder in his eyes. “What exactly is this?”

“Magic from the past and the future. I combine both, because I am dead and a part of the portal now,” she sighs and stands up. The light moves slowly towards a muddy path between the trees.

“Let me guess,” she starts, looking at Henry and his…well, dead aunt. “We have to follow it, right?”

“The Savior has spoken,” Zelena says dryly and walks ahead. Her feet seem to touch the dirt, or at least it looks like that.

 _Bitch_.

*

“What do you mean she is _gone_?” There is little in the world that is more impressive than the former Evil Queen’s anger.

Rumple leans on his cane and watches how the horror grows in her dark eyes. The diner is awfully silent and Robin Hood gives him a suspicious look. Ah, old feuds that are still not forgotten. How interesting that this bastard lived in his old castle then, if Zelena’s words are to be trusted. “The time portal opened not long ago and now it is closed. Which led me to the conclusion that its purpose was fulfilled.”

Regina stands up, ignoring Roland’s small “Regina?” and stalks closer to him. “What have you done?”

It is tragic that now Regina will never get the chance to get to know her sister. They share the most inconvenient traits, such as jumping to conclusions that are born out of impatience and fury. He sighs. “I wasn’t the one that tried to open it; my magic isn’t tied to the remnants of the portal.”

“Then what opened it? Because last time I checked,” she pauses to look him deep in the eye and lower her voice, “my sister had no magic left without that pendant.”

He nods slowly, pretends to be thinking about a reason for the latest event, even though he knows what happened. And beyond. “But it is tied to her magic and even if she has no access to it without that pendant—it remains a part of her.”

Regina crosses her arms. “We already covered that. She can’t use it so she couldn’t open that portal.” She hesitates and tilts her head. “You didn’t came here to accuse me of this, did you? Because why would I want Emma Swan gone again…” She remembers something.

She really needs to stop jumping to the first thing she hears and think more. That was always the problem with the Mills women—they always reached for the first best solution.

“Henry was with her.” He has to be careful now. She mustn’t know how much he really knows, he can’t afford to trigger her wrath. It’s already enough that a furious savior will return. He carries this memory with him since he first saw Emma in the B&B. “He is probably in no danger,” he offers with defiance in his voice.

She raises both eyebrows and stares at him. “Probably in no danger?” she repeats in a low whisper and he can see how Robin leaves the booth and moves towards her. Before Robin’s hand can reach her tense shoulder, she lunges for Gold and grabs the collar of his jacket. She pushes him back, against the counter and he can hear the gasp of Granny and see the worried look in Ruby’s face. “Fix this,” she snarls at his face. “Bring. Them. Back.”

“I can’t,” he replies and pretends not to have trouble breathing. He could use magic to free himself, but he’s noticed how Robin reached for his crossbow and how he nodded to the three Merry Men who were enjoying a beer at the counter and now flank him. “They have…to be…there.”

“For heaven’s sake, don’t talk in riddles, Rumple!”

He contemplates his options. He won’t be able to keep it secret anyway. Once Emma and Henry return, the truth will be out in the open. “I can’t bring…them back, dearie. If I do…that, I’d destroy…everything.”

Regina’s grip loosens a little, just enough to let him breathe more easily. About time. “What have you done?” she whispers horrified. Her eyes are wide and she takes her hand off his jacket.

“It was necessary,” he amends.

“You killed her,” she continues and now the whole diner seems to freeze. Belle will never forgive him, but he had to lie, he had to do this. This time travel was inevitable and bound to happen at some point.

“Necessary sacrifices. You would know a thing or two about this, wouldn’t you?”

“You—!”  
“That’s enough,” Robin chimes in, touching Regina’s fist tentatively and glaring at him. “We should go.”

“Yes,” she agrees. “We should all go and have a look at my sister’s prison cell. Or even better, we’ll watch the recordings the monitoring camera made, shall we?” She flashes him a winning, bitter smile and he simply stares back.

As impressive as her anger is, he is not afraid of her.

*

Emma stares, together with Henry and Zelena, down at the muddy path that is filled with carriages, horses with riders on their backs and soldiers walking slowly on the side of the road. The slope is too far away, though, to spot any familiar faces.

The golden bundle of light floats off to the caravan and comes back to them, just to drift away again. It is obviously hinting at the castle and whatever ball is awaiting them there.

Which is part of the problem.

They have yet to find out where exactly on the timeline they ended up on.

Before Snow White was banished, Henry has said. Well, that would mean that they got thrown back into a time where even the Evil Queen hadn’t existed, and Rumpelstiltskin had already hinted at that as well. Didn’t he say he’d just started reaching out to her? (She actually doesn’t want to know what ‘reaching out’ means in Rumple’s vocabulary.)

Emma can’t deny how curious she is to see a young, uncorrupted, pre-Evil Queen Regina. Will there be a great difference?

“That’s a lot of people,” Henry says with a frown. And then his features lighten up and he smiles brightly at her. “I know what’s going on!”

“Then you are on your own, kid. I lost it when Zelena told me that she banished Glinda the Good Witch to Narnia.”

“That’s really not what I told you two, at all,” Zelena breathes and gives her a head shake. “And I banished her to the Enchanted Forest, not...this Narnia you insist it is. As far as I know, she now lives in a pocket dimension that happens to be snowed in.” She gets a thoughtful face. “She always liked winter best,” she murmurs.

Emma averts her gaze and focuses back on the caravan in front of them. “Anyone else thinks that we have to somehow get into that fancy castle?”

“It looks different than the last time I was here,” Zelena says.

“My mom changed it once she became the Evil Queen, I guess,” Henry points out. “The king is still alive, though. We arrived to his birthday party, that’s why so many royals are travelling to his castle.”

“That is correct, dearie!” Rumple laughs from behind them, and for fuck’s sake, when did that creep come back? “You are such a bright boy. But tell me, how can you be the Evil Queen’s son?” He gives Emma a confused look. “I thought he was your son?”

Oh-oh.

“That’s not important here,” she chimes in, watching how Zelena presses her lips together and looks rather grumpy for a ghost. “Just tell us how to get in there.”

“Why, with magic of course,” he giggles and it’s so annoying that Emma is really starting to question Belle’s sanity and how she could fall for this version of Mister Gold. The one from Storybrooke is already weird enough, but this version takes the fucking cake. “I will give you new clothes, a helpful spell and you’ll be completely different people.” He chuckles at her. “Fine feathers make fine birds, isn’t that right, Emma Swan?”

Great, now he starts to make puns about her name. And something about his cackle tells her that there are more to come. Good god, no.

Zelena rolls her eyes. “Are you quite done, imp?”

Rumple looks at her hurt. “Where does this sudden hostility come from?”

Henry sighs deeply. “Not again,” he whispers to her and turns his head to watch the moving people and horses in the distance. The clouds seem to move with them and Emma just wants to get somewhere warm.

“You are wasting our time.”

“You are on a time travel, how much in a hurry can you really be?” Rumple counters and tilts his head while leaning slightly forward. He is mocking the ghost of a dead woman and there is no reason behind it.

“They have to return at some point,” she reminds him.

Emma nods. “Yeah, I’d love to return like right now.”

“Oh, shush, no one asked you, little swan princess.” Rumple waves her words off like a fly. “Do you know what exactly this time travel will include? It’s not only about finding the missing pieces and putting everything into place,” he says with a serious face. “It is an educational journey for some of you.”

Surprisingly enough, he isn’t looking at Henry when he says this, but at Zelena and her.

She looks pissed. “I am dead, what bloody lesson can this journey possibly offer me, dear Rumple?”

“You are in the past. And you were the one who told me that future-me planned all this, knew about this—that I would trick you into believing that a time travel would solve all your troubles.” He’s downright laughing at her, just without the laughing part. It’s a silent, effective scoff. “I know what sight will await you in that castle. I know what state Regina is in and what kind of life you wanted to have, how you wished to be there instead of her. See and learn, and then decide for yourself if the price she’s paying would be worth the life she’s currently trapped in.”

Zelena says nothing.

No one says a thing.

Rumple talks about Regina like a little girl would talk about her most favored doll. He is fascinated with her, sure, but there is a possessiveness in his raspy voice that makes her sick. And then there is the undeniable fact that they won’t meet happy young Regina like Emma hoped they would. Well, according to Snow something really bad happened to Regina’s boyfriend and somehow her mother was partly at fault there, but also Regina’s mother and all these things become a clusterfuck of facts in her head. She should’ve shown more interest for her parents’ past. Maybe she wouldn’t be so confused and disoriented right now.

Henry makes a confused noise. “How do you know what we have to do when we told you about the time travel like five minutes ago?”

“Ah, excellent question, my young friend.”

And then he says nothing. Just smiles and giggles.

Emma exhales deeply. “Alright, we’re still no closer to become party crashers so, how about you say something helpful for a change? Maybe give us the new clothes you promised us? ”

“Right here.” He clasps once in his hands and suddenly she is dressed in a simple light blue robe made from a chunky material and a brown cloak with hood that looks like it was formerly a potato bag.

Henry looks like a little prince with his black boots, dark leather pants and a shirt with a leather vest. He has no cloak, but a belt around his hips. “Cool,” he whispers.

“Consider it a gift,” Rumple smiles.

Emma feels uncomfortable in these clothes. Her shoes are flat and she wants her jeans back. It’s cold.

“Are we ready to go to a really boring birthday party of the king?” Rumple asks like the tour guide he tries to be. He then remembers something and, with a small voice, he whispers a chant and waves with his hand, nodding at her and Henry.

“What did you do?”

“I gave you the whisper of boredom,” he announces proudly. “No one will pay attention to you—as long as you don’t attract attention to you. Is that clear?”

She touches her face, checking if he turned her into an old hag or something, but it still feels the same.

“Your appearance, dearie,” Rumple says with a drawl, “did not change. You simply appear to be of no concern to anyone, their gazes won’t linger too long on you two, should they decide to even acknowledge your presence. It’s almost as if you’re invisible. I can’t use a stronger spell, Regina might…feel it. I need to be careful, too.”

“But I still can see her,” Henry protests, stopping to touch his own face. Genes are stronger than she’d have expected.

Rumple looks at Zelena. “It’s like talking to a wall. And I am saying this to the dead ghost of a woman my future self killed,” he laughs aloud. “Anyway, tug along children. There is no need to waste any more time.”

Zelena just shakes her head. “That’s the moment where I would be turning around in my grave by now,” she mutters, but dutifully follows Rumple’s zigzag walk. “But, oh wait, there is no body to put into a coffin.”

Emma gives her a concerned look. “What happened to your body?”

“It’s gone with the wind, I suppose.”

She did not. “When did you find the time to read classics and include pop culture into your jokes and giggles repertoire?”

Zelena laughs and Emma isn’t sure if it’s because she asked her this question or because she almost tripped over a root. Fucking long robes and cloaks.

This better be over quick.

*

It seems like the king invited every royal soul in a radius of 100 miles. The castle is filled with people, but the most important names and figures of this game of false smiles and ass-kissing pleasantries dance around the king in the main hall. They are all wearing elegant clothes, mostly light colors, holding their chins high and waltzing around in that royal way of theirs. 

This looks a little like some of the boring banquets hosted by some rich snobs she had to visit during her time as a bail bondsperson.

At least Rumple was right; no one pays attention to them—well, Zelena is invisible by default, since she’s a ghost, but the guards didn’t really see them when they snuck in, trailing behind Rumple.

Rumple who is wearing a red cloak with golden ornaments on the thick material and yet no one seems to notice him. (“I am using the same spell, dearie. I don’t like to be in the center of attention, you understand?” he told her with his wide smile. Like a fucking crocodile, which explains how Hook came up with that nickname.)

Zelena’s lips turn down. “I bet my funeral is going to be more fun. Look at how bored some people look,” she tells Emma with lips twisted in disgust. “Me included,” she adds with an eye roll.

She ignores Zelena’s comments. “Have you spotted Regina by now?” she whispers to Henry, who is looking around. Regina isn’t sitting next to the king, but she saw little Snow and damn her if her mom wasn’t a cute little girl. Just like everyone would picture Snow White, to be honest.

They keep at the side of the dance floor where well-dressed couples swirl around to the music of a group of minstrels playing their instruments with visible joy. There is also the smell of delicious food in the air and Emma holds her stomach.

“There,” Henry suddenly says, his voice filled with so many different emotions. Awe, curiosity and sadness.

She and Zelena turn their heads to follow Henry’s hand that is subtly pointing at the other end of the room, where Regina is sitting at the center of the long table, watching the dancing couples with a bland face. There is sorrow and a desperate kind of longing that makes Emma shiver.

“She looks like this actually is a funeral,” Zelena notes, with surprise in her whispered words. “She’s the queen. Why is she looking like she’s about to be executed?”

“She’s lonely,” Henry says with a deep, concerned frown. “She has no one here. No friends. The book never mentioned this, but…” He sighs. “When the curse broke, no one came to find her. No one talked to her. I mean, not even her own guards or servants. Which is actually odd. They somehow disappeared?” He thinks for a moment. “Not everyone could’ve hated her, right?” He worries his lower lip. He’s probably thinking about how he claimed to hate her.

She is glad that they left that chapter behind them. “Maybe they still hold a grudge for the being cursed thing?”

“Yeah, but it made me wonder if mom had any friends here at all,” he whispers back and his gaze never leaves Regina’s young, troubled face. “And now I have my answer. Kind of.”

She wants to hug him for still seeing her as his mom, even if he’s staring at the younger version of her. It’s a huge step, thinking back at how he saw her two years ago. He is really growing up, she muses with a thoughtful glance at Regina, who lifts her glass and pretends to like the taste of whatever she’s drinking. But the brief curl of her lips tells a different story.

It’s funny that in some regards the Regina she knows isn’t that different from her younger self. That revelation isn’t nearly as comforting as she expected it to be.

Her thoughts are interrupted by the king who is telling the minstrels to stop playing for a moment and is about to announce something, his warm gaze lingering on Snow’s young pale face. She just noticed the girl sitting right next to the king’s chair.

Emma doesn’t want to look at Regina, but her gaze wanders there nonetheless and she wishes she could’ve left this party like five minutes ago.

Zelena makes an irritated noise. “Wait, she’s married to this old fart? I believed him to be younger.”

This is a nightmare, not a time travel.

*

The tape is blurry in some parts and it’s the clear sign to finally give in and buy some new 21st century equipment for this station. He isn’t paying attention to the video, he watches Regina’s face when she finally understands the price of the curse.

Robin is standing on the other side, behind her chair, and he looks like he hasn’t seen a TV screen in his life before—and the chances are high that this might be indeed a premiere for the leader of the Merry Men. He is still living in the forest around this town, if he remembers correctly.

From a stable boy to a forest monkey. Cora would be disgusted by the very thought.

He sighs.

Regina swirls around on her chair and stares at him, her dark eyes filled with disbelief, anger and something like grief. Ah, she’d already made place in her heart for a warm sisterly bond between her and Zelena. Too bad. “You selfish bastard,” she hisses, jumping from the chair.

Robin catches her arm and holds her back. “Easy. Let the imp explain,” he suggests, giving him a dirty look. But Regina remains tense and her dark eyes glare daggers at him.

Why didn’t Belle allow him to shoot this bastard all those decades ago? He rolls his eyes, tapping his cane on the floor. “What is there left to explain, thief? I made myself rather clear. Or didn’t you listen to what I said to her?”

“You knew this would be necessary at some point in the future?” Regina’s forehead knits together in consternation. “You never thought of warning any of us?”

He isn’t angry, not really. He is frustrated with how painstakingly slow Regina is in catching up with truths the rest of the world already knows. First, it was her false hopes to bring Daniel back, and now this. “Have you truly believed that this curse just happened like this? That everything fell in place for this curse, just like that?”

She blinks and her anger is pushed aside by another emotion: confusion. “You and your visions made it sound so inevitable,” she says, crossing her arm and involuntarily—or voluntarily?—shakes Robin’s hand off.

He laughs. “You silly child. I knew everything because of the things I was told by Emma and your son,” he tells her, limping closer. “I knew who they were long before you did, dearie. What they are doing right now on their time travel already happened—that’s why the curse was possible in the first place!”

Robin furrows his brow and he hopes the man won’t hurt himself with too much thinking. He seems like the guy who’d rather shoot some arrows at occurring problems than trying to assess the situation and then act. He’s even worse than Prince Charming.

Regina’s eyes widen. “You...knew for all these years that this time travel was going to happen one day? Is that why you allowed Zelena to get so far? Because this was another sick game of yours?”

“Not a game. Careful calculation. And yes, I met Zelena in the past as well. She is there, right now, as an annoying ghost, I might add. Hence the whole _I need to murder Zelena_ part in this.”

He can feel the thoughts rushing through her head. “Henry’s adoption,” she whispers, and takes a few deep breaths.

“Really, dearie. This shouldn’t be such a surprise. Let’s face it, there are so many children out there for adoption and you truly were ready to discard Henry’s adoption as some sort of lucky coincidence for my interests? I talked to Emma in the past, Regina. I knew her name, her looks—with the little of magic I had stored away, it was no rocket science to find him before Pan’s little puppets did. And then I just had to wait for Emma to come to town. Which she did, thanks to your son.” His voice is sharp and condescending, because how can she be this dense? After everything that has happened?

Then again, this woman is basing her happiness on some stinky pixie dust that pointed at that man with the tattoo who is glaring at him as if he has insulted his little son. His son, who reminds him of little Bae everytime he has to see the dimples.

He sighs. “Henry even told me about his book of fairy tales.”

Regina’s lower lip trembles, but her flaring nostrils tell him that it’s not sadness that make her eyes glisten with tears. Her eyes are burning with rage. “All these visions you had, everything was a...lie. You knew all these things from them, right?”

“Most of them, yes. The rest was just faith in your magic and my guiding hand,” he says with a secretive smile.

“Regina, let’s go back to the diner,” Robin says with a pleading voice. Maybe he isn’t that stupid after all. He seems to see the upcoming storm before Regina does.

She gives him a brief glance. Then she looks back to Rumple and takes a deep breath before she breaks the tense silence between them. “Are they going to be alright? Will they come back unharmed?”

What an interesting choice of pronouns. “Your family will come back safe and sound to your precious town,” he promises. “And who knows, maybe something good will even come out of it?” he says with a knowing little grin and looks at Robin.

Robin, who is simple and doesn’t catch the true meaning of the ambiguous hint.

Robin, who gives Regina a last concerned glance.

Robin, who leaves the station with a thoughtful face.

Oh, the thrilling saga of Regina’s catastrophic choices in love interests continues. He can’t wait to see the last chapter of it unfold in front of him. He smiles to himself. “Meanwhile, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t prance around telling everyone the news. Neither about Zelena’s death, nor about Emma and Henry’s disappearance in the time portal or what it has to do with the first curse.”

“Her parents aren’t that dull that we can get away with that forever,” she gives back dryly. “They will notice Emma’s absence after a while, even if they are busy with dotting over their little son.”

He is grateful that she didn’t use the name of Snow and David’s son. He is still not sure what to think about their choice. Should he be honored? Offended? Well, it’s rather Emma who should be unsatisfied with the choice, but it’s none of his business anyway.

“True,” he agrees slowly. “But I don’t want to deal with overprotective parents who happen to be foolish enough to demand us to transport them to the past with a crying newborn in their arms.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” she nods with a cold look in her eyes.

“Very well.”

*

It is dark when they finally get out of the castle. It was Henry who noticed the golden light guide of theirs, hinting at the exit of that place and they didn’t waste any more time staying there. Regina disappeared anyway at some point, the genie following her after a few seconds. Sidney.

Rumple didn’t return from his own little expedition around the castle and they didn’t wait for him or tried to find him. No one misses his giggles and cryptic jokes and weird hand gestures with too much finger wiggling.

“Well, that was depressing,” Emma murmurs and pushes the hood off her head.

Henry kicks at a stone and hums in agreement. “He ignored her. The king, I mean. The only one who paid attention to her was the genie.”

“I imagined her life to be different,” Zelena muses with a sober voice. “Better.” Gone are the dry humor and the witty comments. What’s left are the surprisingly bitter facts right in front of them—one of them being the realization that Snow’s dad was a dick.

She stares at the castle. The festivities are still ongoing, the great windows are illuminated with golden light, laughter and music reaches their hidden spot behind some trees. Which is actually unnecessary, right? They still have that spell.

Henry sits down on a rock. “Now what?”

Zelena shrugs and looks at him, pondering over something. “Was that what Rumpelstiltskin meant I’d learn here?”

“You are a very needy group, my friends!” Rumple’s cheerful voice comes out of the dark, before he steps closer. The full moon is doing a great job in making him look like a sith lord with his hood on and all.

“Zelena, I’d kill you right now if you weren’t dead already,” Emma grits out and Henry just face palms himself. “Why the fuck did you say his name again?”

Zelena shrugs. “I am sorry?” she tries, a sheepish look on her face. “It’s not like we have anything better to do.”

“Oh, don’t blame her. I was following you anyway, just waiting for the right moment to become a part of your thrilling thoughts,” he says with a wide smile. He pushes his hood back and looks at each of them. “Now you know the beginning of Regina’s downfall.”

“Downfall?” Emma echoes and tilts her head. “You are talking about her unhappiness, right?”

“Ah, no,” Rumple shakes his head. His index finger moves in sync with his head. “She’ll let more and more darkness into her heart.”

Henry kicks at another stone, trying to hit the golden bundle of light. He misses it by a few inches. “The king’s going to die,” he mutters darkly. “The genie is going to kill him.”

Rumple blinks at that. It seems to be brand new information to him.

“She does what now?” Zelena asks, looking at Henry and then at Emma.

“Oh, what a clever girl,” Rumple says with delight in his deep voice. It’s the same tone that made Emma shiver earlier and now it feels even more icky. He’s pleased by the upcoming murder like others are with sunny weather. “That is…all I was waiting for,” he murmurs to himself.

Then he snips his fingers and he’s gone. The thick cloud of magic swallows him and leaves the smell of ashes and bitterness behind.

Emma clears her throat. “Are we stuck here now, or what?”

“We have to follow that light,” Henry says and he’s right, the damn light is moving again, floating off to the dark forest in front of them.

“Regina kills a king and I am called wicked before I even murdered anyone?” Zelena looks truly offended by that. As if this was a debate about the classification of evil actions. “I don’t think that makes a lot of sense, does it?”

“Can you do me a favor and stop bitching about your problems that don’t concern us? ‘Cause it’s kinda pointless, you know. There is no coming back from the dead, right?” Regina told her that in one of their few magic lessons, with a gaze lowered to the ground and a small voice. Small enough for Emma not to ask any further questions about who she tried to bring back and how.

Zelena glares at her and throws her arms up. “I am just pointing out that it seems unfair to me, that’s all. And just look at...Gold,” she catches herself before she says his name again. “He parades around with his title as the Dark One as if it’s something to be proud of. He killed me! He is the reason why we are stuck here, and yet you don’t look like you want to claw his eyes out!”

“I can’t believe we’re having this discussion in the Enchanted Forest. I just want to get this stupid time travel done and get back home, okay?”

“So you are not going to punish him for my death, because I was wicked and rotten from the inside anyway?” Zelena gives her something she’s come to call “the mayoral shitface” whenever Regina gave her that fake smile. “I am so relieved the good guys have their values and priorities sorted out. Makes me feel like part of the community and…oh, wait. I am still dead!”

She glares at her. “This is not my fault! You tried to kill my brother with this time portal.” She forces herself to calm down. “If it makes you feel better, I will arrest him and make sure he’ll be punished, alright?”

Zelena ignores her offer. “Oh, please. Nothing would’ve happened to him. I just needed him to activate the portal and I failed. Well, not really, since we are all gathered here, in the past of the Enchanted Forest.”

Henry makes smacking noises with his lips. “Can we like follow that light or do you need a time out?”

“A time out,” Zelena repeats with a small grin. “What an excellent word play.”

Emma throws her arms up and remembers then how low cut her cleavage is. She quickly closes the cloak as best as she can to keep the cold night air away, sighing deeply. Her gaze is caught by something glowing in the distance. It’s bigger than their light guide, it looks almost like…

“Another portal,” Henry whispers.

Zelena shakes her head. “I am so excited,” she says with the most resigned voice she’s ever used in their presence. “I might die from sheer excitement.”

She is still laughing about her own joke when they all reach the glowing, swirling time portal and jump in together.

*

It’s daylight and a lot warmer than in the place before. Emma also didn’t lose her conscience but it feels weird to be standing now in rays of sunlight, instead of being surrounded by darkness. It feels a little like having a jetlag. They just skipped the night and she feels tired.

“Look!” Henry says and jumps over a bolder to reach something that is attached to the tree. A most wanted poster with Snow’s face on it. “That means my mom is the Evil Queen by now and Snow is on the run,” he says with a timid look on his young features.

Zelena looks at the poster with growing curiosity. “She learned magic and yet she relied on the inadequacy of her guards instead of magic to capture Snow White? What kind of Evil Queen is that? What a waste of time,” she scoffs, waving with her hand.

Emma raises an eyebrow. “You know, I don’t think Regina really wanted to have Snow White killed. They somehow got trapped in this sick cat and mouse game of theirs.” She shrugs and checks with a glance if Henry agrees and he nods at her.

“She tried to put her into eternal sleep with that poisoned apple, but True Love’s kiss stopped her plan,” Henry adds to her observations and she can see how Zelena sighs and rolls her eyes at the mentioning of True Love.

“Fine, I don’t really care. It’s not like I could change her fate or mine anyway, now could I?”

Henry wants to reply to this, but the noise of galloping horses through the forest silences them all. They all duck behind some bushes and just now seem to notice the road snaking its way through the forest.

“There,” Henry whispers suddenly and points at a fallen tree on the road, far away from their hiding spot. “I can’t believe it!” he breathes and a happy chuckles escapes his throat. “This is how Snow and Prince Charming meet for the first time!”

“Oh no, not these two. I had to drink tea with them and it was awful,” Zelena says, almost whining. She really lives up to the title of being a ghost—she spooks the good mood away with as much as a grumpy look.

Emma scolds her with a glare. “My parents aren’t awful. They just really like to…” She thinks about Baby Neal and the little other things that still somehow bother her. Like the fact that they never had time to talk and reflect about anything that has happened to them since the curse broke.

“Let’s get closer!” Henry demands and he’s already moving closer to that fallen tree in a ducked posture.

At least the kid’s having fun, Emma thinks when she exchanges a short look with Zelena.

“Let’s see a true fairytale unfold in front of us, hm?” Zelena says with a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes and Emma suspects that the woman in front of her despises the concept of True Love for entirely different reasons than being annoyed at the sappiness of her parents.

She silently follows her.

*

It’s hard to tell what she expected.

The carriage is long gone now and Emma doesn’t know how long they were sitting under that tree. They haven’t moved far from the spot where the fallen tree was. The guards of David and Kathryn’s carriage (“Her name is actually Princess Abigail, Emma,” Henry had corrected her) moved the tree out of the way and once David returned with empty hands and a cut on his chin, Abigail just shrugged and told him that at least he tried to live up to his reputation of “chasing after women”. It was said with a bitter and condescending tone, before the blonde vanished in her carriage.

“I like her,” Zelena had said.

Of course she does.

Emma sighs and watches the rays of sunlight dancing through the forest canopy. “So that’s how they met, hm?” When they talked about this in the diner, with the book open on the table, she didn’t believe that what the book told them was true. But it is.

David really chased after the bandit Snow White.

“Yeah,” Henry agrees, a small smile on his lips. “Does this change your opinion about where your home is?” he asks hopeful.

Emma feels Zelena’s curious gaze on her, but she keeps her eyes trained on Henry. “It’s not something I can influence. I just…look, just because I saw how my parents met each other for the first time,”—it was more watching them fight and jump on horses and ride away while yelling things, but that still counts, right?—“doesn’t mean I suddenly will feel more at home in Storybrooke. It’s not the people, Henry. It’s the place.”

“But…” He doesn’t push, he just leaves her to understand that he had hoped for another answer. She wants to hug him and tell him that she could try to stay there, but it feels wrong to promise things she most likely doesn’t, can’t, plan to keep

“Wait,” Zelena interrupts their little tense moment. “You want to leave Storybrooke? What about that pirate of yours?” She seems genuinely confused.

Emma groans. “He’s not my pirate or my anything, got it? Jesus, I told you that when you thought it would be clever to curse his lips.”

“Well, it worked.”

“CPR technically doesn’t count as kissing,” she counters, angry that they now reached _that_ kind of conversation.

Henry gives her a weird look. “That’s how you lost your magic?”

“Odd, isn’t it?” Emma still glares at Zelena. “That was a stupid plan. Like, what made you think I’d kiss him?”

Zelena stares back, her eyes widening slightly. “I cursed the wrong pair of lips then,” she mumbles under her breath.

“Yes!” Emma says, relieved to make her point clear before frowning again. “Wait, what?”

Henry seems lost, just looking between them, back and forth.

Zelena smiles a knowing smile. “That’s why she gave you her memories, isn’t it? Why she didn’t like Robin Hood that much when they met last year in the Enchanted Forest?”

Emma’s frown deepens. Her heart jumps before it stops for the split of a second once her words sink in. Oh no. “Now you are really reaching, woman,” she says darkly.

Henry still seems unable to connect the dots. “What are you talking about?”

Zelena laughs, delighted with what she believes to be an uncovered secret. Well, she’s right but Emma rather would die than admit that this ghost woman might be onto something. Something she doesn’t even want to face herself. Which is why she chose to run from this particular issue. Again.

“This is priceless, really,” Zelena chuckles, shaking her head. “And it was right in front of me!”

“It’s not like cursing her lips would’ve changed anything,” Emma whispers to her out of Henry’s hearing range and looks away, feeling how her cheeks are starting to burn.

“Are you guys talking about my mom or…?” Henry’s frustration is laced with confusion. Sometimes it still has that high-pitched crack whenever he is too excited or frustrated, like in this case. 

Zelena inches closer, her ghost body not making a sound and going through the plants as if they weren’t there. “You admit that I am right?”

“It doesn’t matter anyway. You are dead, she’s happy and I will return to New York. End of story,” she says and jumps to her feet with a sudden movement. “Let’s find that glowing piece of shit that is supposed to tell us where to go,” she suggests with an impatient note to her still angry voice. The blush won’t leave her alone.

“She likes my mom, doesn’t she?” Henry whispers behind her back, and she wants to hit something.

*

There is a silly and more than pointless town hall meeting, but some of the obedient (and maybe bored) citizens of Storybrooke are gathered in the vast room anyway, sitting on the wooden chairs and waiting for their mayor, who never officially got re-elected, but Snow’s approval was enough this time, it would seem, to start the meeting.

Rumple has no idea what she’s about to say.

“What is going on?” Belle whispers into his ear and her presence reminds him why this whole meeting might end in a disaster for him.

“I have no idea,” he lies and looks to the front, where Regina is ushering Robin to sit down somewhere. She seems tense.

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I know that some of you noticed the…unusual lighting phenomenon that occurred one hour ago and I wanted to clear that up,” Regina starts, authority resonating in her voice. Something Snow never learned is how to be a true leader; she might have been born to be a queen, but it is Regina who truly _is_ the queen. And no matter how hard she tries to fight her past, her posture and the way her gaze sweeps over the intently listening crowd betray her.

“Where is Emma?” Snow chimes in. She’s sitting on the left side of the room in the first row, a sleeping baby Neal in her arms. “Shouldn’t she be here too?”

Regina arches a brow. “I tried to call her but it seems like your daughter decided to have her phone on mute once again,” she says with an accusing tone.

She’s really good at this whole lying thing, he has to admit. Well, she learned from the best.

“That lightning,” Belle murmurs next to him. “Was that magic?”

“I sincerely hope not,” Rumple tells her, taking her hand in his. This whole affair might blow up into his face. He is playing with fire, he knows that. But now is not the time to confess his necessary murder or why Emma (and by extension Henry) aren’t here.

Snow seems to remember her grandson in the same moment. “And Henry? I haven’t seen him, either?” There is still no suspicion in her tone and it’s blind trust in Regina that ruined so many things for Snow White—including her family. He’s really surprised how both women agreed to start the game anew.

Regina purses her lips. “Snow, this is no time or place to interrogate me about the whereabouts of my son, who happens to be with Emma at the moment. I guess they are still walking around, talking. She did storm out of the diner, quite angry if you recall?” Hook, sitting right next to David and baby Neal, fidgets around in his seat at the mention of Emma storming out of the diner.

Snow sighs.

One final look, before Regina faces the crowd as a whole again and starts to talk about the “aftereffects of an unfinished time portal opening” that works similar “to a lightening and has to discharge its energy at some point”.

Rumple has to press his lips together to not laugh at the explanation she gives there. But no one in this town knows enough about time portals, he even doubts that Regina knows much about them—so it’s no surprise that they all buy her explanation she delivers with a small but effective smile. Her calm voice lulled the people to believe her lies.

It’s like watching TV, he thinks.

Belle nudges his elbow and it’s just now he notices that everyone else is slowly getting up and leaving the hall. “Let’s go,” she smiles at him and he follows her, exhaling a deep breath.

He shoots a glance in Regina’s direction, who slips into her coat and takes Roland’s hand, allowing Robin to take her other hand.

She really is an excellent liar, even to herself.

*

They end up in another place again, this time on the borders of whatever forest they are currently in. A castle is in the distance, different from the one they’d already visited. And they are not alone.

Rumple is waiting for them.

“Hello, my dear friends!” He clasps his hands together and grins at them with his rotten teeth and dark eyes twinkling with mischief. “It’s been quite some time! Well, not for you, I believe. But for me.”

“I am not your friend,” Zelena points out, not too happy to see him again. It seems like he won’t leave them alone.

What kind of crime did they commit to deserve this? She looks at Zelena and okay, so maybe she deserves to be haunted by Rumple like this—wait, isn’t she the ghost who’s supposed to do the haunting?—but she doesn’t like it one bit that they are in this together. Not only for Henry’s sake.

Henry, who is the only one who doesn’t complain as much as they do.

“You again,” Emma sighs. “What a surprise.”

“Yes, we are so thrilled,” Zelena adds.

Rumple’s smile vanishes and he looks at them angrily. “Is that a way to greet someone who offered you help? I am disappointed,” he says with a dramatic sigh and a little 360° turn, waving his hands as he suddenly remembers something. “On the other hand, you don’t even know why I am here,” he smiles. There is little they can do to shoo him away, right?

“Why are you here?” Henry, bless his soul, gets the cue to play along.

Emma just blinks and watches Rumple’s smile grow. “The time portal brought you here, correct?”

They all nod, except Zelena who inspects her nails.

“Well,” he says with a small giggle, “there is another ball awaiting you. This time it’s hosted by King Midas in honor of the newly engaged couple, Prince James and his beloved Princess Abigail.”

“Wait, that wasn’t David?” Emma starts confused and looks at Henry.

Rumple gives her a surprised look. “You know that this is not the real James, but his twin David?”

“David has a twin?” Emma repeats, now completely at a loss.

“Had,” Henry corrects her. “He’s dead,” he adds with a shrug. “That’s why David is the substitute prince. That’s why the princess doesn’t like him much.” He lowers his voice to a whisper, “He was kind of an asshole. James, I mean. Even in my book.”

Emma is too confused to scold him for his language.

Zelena on the other hand is not. “Watch your tongue, young man, or I’ll tell my dear sister she raised a miniature Hook.” She smiles wickedly. “She’d probably try to kill me for that comment,” she chuckles and continues to stare at her pale hands with little interest.

Rumple coughs and clears his throat and huffs impatiently. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have to be on that ball and the Evil Queen will be there, too. I advice caution and a clear mind, before doing something that would alter the past and ultimately also the future.”

Emma notices with the corner of her eyes how Zelena’s head snaps up and she looks at her concerned. “Something wrong?”

“Regina will be here?” She whispers and blinks at Rumple.

He nods enthusiastically. “Oh, yes. She’s the guest of honor. Or maybe they just invited her to avoid a tragedy like with Princess Aurora’s gone-wrong christening,” he says with regret as if it had affected his life. “She does have a reputation, after all.”

“But she’s not Maleficent,” Henry contradicts slowly.

Ah, yes that makes sense. Rumple was talking about the story of Sleeping Beauty, of course. She is tired from all the portal jumping and she stifles a yawn.

Rumple nods with a giggle. “They are best friends, though,” he reminds them with a lifted finger. “At least, as close as two very angry women can get to best friends,” he says with a careless shrug. “We need to prepare you for the ball!”

“Great, I am sure it’s to die for,” Zelena grumbles and she should be used to this kind of comments and behavior by now, but Emma wonders if this is just the bitterness about being dead, or maybe the past hurt feelings that come with abandonment by the own mother shine through her words.

Emma knows that feeling all too well, even now that she remembers and knows the truth behind Snow and David’s decision. It still hurts.

And in Zelena’s case there was no curse, no heroic attempt behind her abandonment, which could give her some comfort. Cora abandoned her for selfish reasons.

“Are you still jealous of Regina?” she asks, lifting a brow.

Zelena gives her a sour look. “If you think that I suddenly can stomach the view of my dearest sister as a powerful queen, then you are mistaken, Emma. I know that there is nothing to desire about it, I saw her…at the king’s birthday party,” she says in a small voice. “But at the same time I can’t just turn it off. Forget the years I was left alone and hated for…simply being me. You of all people should know that notion, shouldn’t you?”

“And yet, here I am not being a dick about it.”

“We have business to do!” Rumple interrupts them with a heated glance.

“Shut up, Rumple!” Zelena almost screeches and gets to her feet with something like a floating motion, rushing to Rumple and stopping right in front of his face. “For once, just keep quiet and stop making everything about you! You are using us for your purposes and that’s bad enough, so cut it!”

Now it gets ugly.

“Oh no,” Henry sighs. “Emma, do something.”

“She’s a ghost, I can hardly…hold her back or whatever.”

Meanwhile Rumple is calling Zelena’s mother names and Henry gasps and Regina is so killing her for this. Her little prince just heard a row of curses he shouldn’t have overheard. Ugh.

“Pretend you didn’t hear that,” she says. “Or that,” she adds, glaring at Rumple.

“You fucking—!”

“Alright, stop!” Emma yells and birds escape out of the trees above them. Her mother would be disappointed, probably. Well, she never liked birds that much. “We don’t have time for this. Tell us how to get on that ball and we’ll be on our way.”

“I won’t come with you,” Rumple tells her, completely ignoring Zelena’s victorious little chuckle. “Regina will be there and she’d sense my presence and magic immediately. I am not a welcome guest in that castle, so that would cause certain trouble,” he explains with a sad look in his eyes. She doubts it’s real. Rumple is basically a huge drama queen with bad teeth.

“You wouldn’t be welcome to come with us, dearest Rumple,” Zelena says with a sneer and Emma wants to smack her, but she can’t because the most annoying person in this group happens to be a stupid ghost.

“I didn’t plan to go with you there anyway,” he spits out like an angry child and seriously? This is an ass grown man who fucking hisses at Zelena when their gazes meet with what seems like little thunderbolts.

Henry just sighs.

“Enough!” she yells again, tired of waiting for them to get their shit together. Maybe that’s her fault—Zelena won’t forgive Rumple and there is really no reason why she should, but her strong aversion against that man makes their whole trip a tad more complicated than they can afford. “So,” she starts, her voice calm and even. “Is your spell still going to work again? The one that made us look…un-special?”

Zelena gives her an incredulous look at her choice of words. A look she already knows all too well from Regina.

“No,” Rumple says with a much calmer voice. “If I use that spell on you, Regina will feel my magic. We have to use as little of my magic on you two as possible,” he explains. “However, you are lucky that the host decided in the last minute, as it seems, to host a mask ball!” He makes a pondering hum. “Not last minute, but to cover Prince James or more precisely David’s fresh cut on his chin.”

“The cut Snow White gave him!” Henry cheers and bless this kid for still being so excited about all this. She is too tired, too pissed at these two—imp and ghost—to think about anything else but her wish to get home as quickly as possible.

“I was just about to say that,” Rumple beams at Henry and giggles. “Let me take care of your clothes and the mask and how we get you to the castle—you’ll do the rest.”

Sounds like the most vague plan she’s ever heard, Emma thinks, but nods nonetheless, because what fucking choice does she have?

*

They storm into his shop like an angry mob, a crying baby being the bonus here. He rolls his eyes, puts down the book he was reading and limps with his cane to the shop part of his home.

Snow and Regina are arguing with each other, Charming tries desperately to calm baby Neal down, and Robin examines the shelves and the content in the display cabinets that need to be dusted off. Well, one day.

He greets them with a frown and a tired eye roll. “Seems like there is trouble in your patchwork family’s paradise. Archie Hopper’s office is down the street,” he tells them in a dry, almost bored tone, and points with the cane to the left. “You can’t miss it.”

“Where is Emma?” Snow practically shouts at him, slamming her hands on the counter he’s standing behind. The cash register trembles and the coins clatter within it. “What have you done!”

“Is that what you understand under ‘keeping something secret’?” he asks and gives Regina a long look. “You managed three hours. Well, Snow White’s record in ‘how fast can I spill a secret I promised not to’ isn’t quite broken, though it was close enough.”

Robin comes behind Regina and his unshaved face looks mildly annoyed.

Charming is humming something and why is he even with that gurgling baby in his arms here? With that tension in the room he won’t stop squirming in his arms anytime soon. At least he isn’t crying anymore.

“I’ll ask you again,” Snow says with a low voice, “where are Emma and Henry?”

“In the past,” Rumple says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “And they have to stay there for as long as it is needed,” he explains further, before Snow can interrupt him.

“But this is not right,” Snow says and Robin nods and the baby is whimpering again. “I mean, they can’t be there and…and…”

“I’ll wait outside,” Charming murmurs and finally leaves the shop.

Rumple looks at each of them once the door closes behind him and the doorbell stops ringing. “They have to be there. I didn’t make the rules. Magic is always connected to a price and this is the price of a curse that not only transcended realms, no, it froze _time_. The curse gave you time you don’t own. And now someone has to make sure the curse can happen, since it wasn’t foreseen in the first place!” He thinks for a few heartbeats. “You could say that right now, Emma and Henry are cheating to bend fate into our favor.”

Snow makes a concentrated face. “Are you telling me that you somehow tricked my daughter into making possible a curse that destroyed her entire childhood and young adult life?”

He remembers a heated discussion with Emma when he was in his cell at the castle of Snow White and Prince Charming, mere minutes before the curse arrived. He sighs. “Yes.”

“This man is sick,” Robin says with a disgusted sneer and shakes his head. “Why is he still walking around? He killed your sister, he should be in chains!”

Snow freezes and Regina closes her eyes, knowing what will follow now.

“You did what?”

That’s not Snow’s voice.

He turns around to see Belle standing behind him, looking at him questioningly. “What is going on?”

It is Regina who sums the most important facts up and judging by the routine of it, it’s the same way she explained things to Snow and David.

Belle gives him a disappointed look. “Rumple, you promised me—!”

“If there were another way, I would have chosen that path, trust me,” he interjects before she can say another word. “You’re missing the main point. I did not choose this. Do you realize what that means? I had plans, in the past, yes. But the time travel? I met them, out of the blue, and they told me about what happened and why they were in the past. I couldn’t send them back and frankly, I was far too fascinated by the idea that fate was on my side, making the curse possible.”

“Emma is not a tool for—!”

“And,” he continues, ignoring Snow’s protest and looking straight at Regina, “I am not the only one who met Emma.”

Regina laughs at him. “Now we’re getting a little delusional, aren’t we?” she mocks him, crossing her arms.

“I am telling the truth,” he presses on, glancing at Belle to make sure she was still there. Her closed off look tells him that the worst part of his troubles hasn’t even started yet. He looks back at Regina. “What did you see, when I died?”

Belle flinches at that.

Snow looks as lost as Robin and they both watch Regina’s reaction.

“What do you mean?” She tries for an impatient tone, but instead the realization of what he’s after starts to blossom on her face. “Pan’s curse,” she whispers, suddenly knowing what he wants to know. Ah, isn’t it beautiful to help people understand their own damn lives? He waits patiently for her to go on, but she closes her eyes and seems to be miles away from them.

“What are you talking about?” Belle whispers with a little headshake. “What has your death to do with any of that?”

“Emma and Henry talked to Regina. In the past, I mean. She saw them, interacted with them. It would’ve changed the future, everything. Naturally, they wanted to avoid this at all costs and that’s why they asked me to put a spell on Regina and alter her memories. Or to be more precise, to store these memories away in her head and replace them with mundane ones that wouldn’t change the future. They wanted her to forget them and it worked.”

Regina opens her eyes in that moment and waits for him to finish his explanation.

He takes a deep breath. “However, the spell wore off with my death. Altering memories permanently works only as long as the one who made that spell remains alive. Alas, with my death, it no longer kept the memories hidden.”

“I thought it was a dream,” Regina whispers breathlessly, fascinated by the revelation. “I thought it was a dream about Emma telling me what to do.”

“Is that why you gasped her name?” Snow wonders and they share a long look.

Robin shifts uncomfortably behind Regina. “I’ll wait outside,” he murmurs into her ear, but they all can understand him anyway. He smiles, kisses her cheek and walks out, without being stopped by Regina.

She’s far too invested in their talk and the urge to find more answers to their questions.

That’s what makes theories about time travel so complicated. One can get headaches from thinking too much about matters like the ones at hand. He wonders if that time travel will change Emma and Henry, besides the obvious shift in their way of thinking. Things they considered self-evident will look completely different, now that they saw the “truth”; they saw things and how they truly happened.

It’d be incredibly endearing to continue his train of thoughts if Snow White and Belle weren’t glaring at him.

“So we are going to wait for them to return?” Snow asks, disbelief in her tired face. A newborn is a lot more work than they guessed, he thinks with an inner snicker. “How do we know they are safe?”

“Since this reality still exists and doesn’t seem to be breaking apart in any form, I’d say that we’re safe and your daughter and grandson are doing everything right,” he calms her down, watching Regina. She’s staring at him, but she seems far more relaxed than anyone else in this room.

“Don’t worry,” she says with a soft smile. “Emma might be reckless and she clearly inherited Charming’s tendencies to act before thinking, but from what I can tell…she knows what’s she’s doing. Or knew. Whatever tense applies,” she huffs.

“She met you when you were the Evil Queen? Yes, Regina, that’s what calms a mother down,” Snow says, not a bit reassured. In fact, since they went over to be a happy family again—which in itself deserves an eye roll and a deep sigh—Snow tends to be less tense around Regina which results in these sassy little remarks between them.

Now he knows where Emma gets her wits. He should’ve known, though. It’s not like Charming has shown any talent in that regard, anyway.

“It’s not like I asked her to visit me,” Regina scoffs annoyed and looks in Belle’s direction, waving her hand at Snow. “I think…I arrested her, though.”

Snow gasps, stares at her and steps closer, and he feels like he should intervene and get them out before they cause unnecessary mayhem in his dusty pawn shop. He actually wants to go back to his book, maybe have a cup of tea and that important chat with Belle he dreads. Maybe not in that order.

“Did you see Henry, too? Maybe put him in chains?”

“No! I would never…I mean, I am not sure. The pictures are all blurred,” Regina admits, closing her eyes again to remember the moment she touched Pan’s curse. But the memories were hidden for so long and then the new curse placed another layer of obliviousness upon her mind that it might take a while for her to get back all the memories from the past. If she is ever getting everything back, that is. “I think…he was there, too, yes” she starts, blinking. “I don’t know.”

“How can I be sure then that you know that nothing won’t happen to them?”

“Why do you have to question everything I say?”

“I don’t, you just—”

And then both women start something like a verbal cat fight and he doesn’t like it one bit. He looks to Belle for advice. She doesn’t appear to be that angry with him anymore. But then again, she has that talent to hide her feelings quite well. “Get them out of here,” she says with a cold look directed at him when she passes him and walks back to their apartment.

He’ll count to ten. And then he’ll kick them out.

With a broom, if he finds one in time.

*

The most vague plan in the entire existence of vague plans—and Emma was long enough a bail bondsperson to have worked with vague plans more often than she asked for—works out conveniently for them. Maybe because Rumple does know what to do in the end, while he draws joy and laughter from messing with their heads.

Anyway, he gave her and Henry another pair of new clothes that are soft and look expensive for this realm’s standard and right now they are sitting in a carriage, Rumple being the disguised carriage driver.

“You look like a real princess now,” Henry smiles at her, smoothing his dark pants down. He’s wearing a dark blue mask that hides half of his young face. His fancy suit—or whatever the term for this is—consists of a dark blue vest with black and silver embroideries at the seams. His boots shine almost as bright as his smile.

“Really?” She doesn’t feel very princess-y right now.

She looks down at her red dress and tries to find a way to breathe in it without looking like a choking chimpanzee in a dress. Her mask is red, just like her dress, or how Zelena has put it: “No one will see you blush when someone mentions Regina now.” What an asshole.

Henry nods while the carriage trundles through the darkness on the uneven ground. The horses neigh and she hears that Rumple is whistling some dark tune she hasn’t heard before. “Yeah, you look really nice. Do you think we can keep the clothes?”

“I doubt Storybrooke will ever host an appropriate event for this. Not as long Granny is in charge to pull beer in her diner,” Zelena comments, and takes another second to add, “or as long as the dwarves are allowed to run around freely. Or the Merry Men. Too many peasants in that town, really.”

Henry only chuckles. “You don’t have to be mean anymore, I know that you are much more than that,” he tells her with that amused glint in his eyes. He looks like a little royal thief on the mission to charm his way into a castle and steal something.

Geez, and if they really lived here in this realm, that’s what probably would’ve happened to him if he stayed with her. Then again, she’s supposed to be a princess here, so…

Zelena gives him an odd look. “You are far too idealistic for your age. Where is the rebellious streak? The insubordination that gives your poor mother headaches?”

“I got grounded once for insubordination, so I guess that’s where it went,” he mumbles and gives Emma a short look. Yeah, fun times. Especially that one time Regina punched her and she punched back.

Why is she smiling?

“I was wrong,” Zelena chirps up, looking at her with an angelic smile. “I still can see your blush.”

_Fuck you, lady._

*

“Good eventide, your Highness,” a man with a polite smile and a little bow says once Emma manages to climb out of the carriage with all the grace she can muster in that red ball gown Rumple gave her. Henry is holding the door for her, giving her a quickly a thumbs up.

Oh, kid.

But since Zelena is biting her lip to keep herself from laughing and mumbles “graceful as a goose” she’s not doing a good job. The high heeled shoes are not helping, either.

And how do you talk to a servant or whatever that white dressed man with tights and funny looking shoes is?

“Good eventide to you, too, your Highness,” the young man says to Henry, bowing once again. “May I receive your invitation and accompany you inside?”

Emma gives him the faked invitations Rumple gave her and schools her features into a mildly interested grimace. At least it feels like a grimace.

“Princess Leia and Prince Charles,” the man reads aloud and gives them another smile. “Please, follow me.”

Zelena is right behind them when they enter the castle, where other servants are leading other royal couples inside. Rumple is grinning at her when she casts one last look back. He was the carter of their carriage.

The insides of that castle are even more impressive than the last one they visited. There is lots of red and gold, so much light that Emma has to blink a few times to get used to it and the cluster of noise, chatter and orchestral music reach their ears when they pass the grand stony staircase.

“Why did you name yourself after Leia Organa?” Henry whispers to her, because he almost reaches to her ear without really craning his neck. They just entered the great hall with a shiny chandelier and the music swells while the couples spin around on the dance floor.

She’s trapped in a Jane Austen book, isn’t she?

“I couldn’t think of another name,” she whispers back, taking the glass of wine her servant offers her and then he disappears. Henry got some juice, it seems. “Charles isn’t the best pick of the year, either,” she scolds him, because all she can think about is about Prince Charles and his big ears.

Henry shrugs, nips and flinches. “I got wine, too,” he says with discomfort in his voice. “Bah.”

“Put it somewhere down,” she advises him and looks at Zelena. “Nothing to say about that ball?”

“More people here. Can’t say I have a lot of fun, though. It’s not like some handsome prince is going to ask me for a dance,” she gives back, constantly reminding them that she is in fact still dead and very much invisible for everyone, except them and Rumple.

“Has anyone seen Prince Charming?” Henry asks and scans the mass of people with his attentive eyes.

Emma shakes her head. “Too many people, kid.” Fascinated by how well choreographed the couples on the floor seem to be, she hasn’t even have the time to look for the man that is going to be her father in a few years.

Zelena sighs. “I wish I could at least drink some of that wine.”

“It’s bitter and sour, just like most of the things you say. You aren’t missing out,” Emma says not looking at her, but smiling all the same about her quip.

“Har har,” Zelena makes and walks off.

“Well done, Ma,” Henry says and his eyes widen slightly when he notices what he just called her.

She pretends that nothing happened, even though her smile grows wider and there is this warmth in her chest that definitely doesn’t come from the horrible wine. “She’ll live,” she says with a wave of her hand, and sighs. “I mean, not really live, but…god, forget it.”

Henry is still chuckling when they walk through the crowd, exchanging polite smiles with the horde of to them unknown royal people. They remain at the side and try not to stick out. The music changes once again to something slower and the couples start a graceful waltz. Watching them makes Emma wonder if that’s what her parents wanted for her—to go on countless balls like this that seem to be pointless anyway. The people around them talk about politics, something about King Midas being a coward to let the enemy sleep with his daughter and she’d be offended if she didn’t know better than them.

David won’t marry Princess Abigail, right?

Suddenly there is applause and Emma spots David in his golden suit and black mask, who leads Princess Abigail to the dance floor. She is wearing a beautiful light blue, almost silver robe and a tiara on her pinned-up blonde hair. Her mask is white.

Both seem to smile for the crowd rather than for themselves.

“They don’t look very happy,” Henry says in a small voice. “And that’s because her True Love is out there,” he delivers the explanation for his own remark.

“Did you swallow that book?” Emma wonders, because she remembers how many pages that fairytale book had and despite the pictures in it, there are a lot paragraphs to mesmerize.

Henry shrugs. “I lived in a town where time stood still. Had to kill the time somehow, huh?”

“Right,” she chuckles and senses once again how the crowd’s attention drifts towards the entrance. She almost expects to see King Midas entering, but the host is sitting on his throne, watching his daughter dance with his future son-in-law.

No, the person entering now is a woman dressed completely in black, including her mask, with a sharp look and a condescending little smile on her full red lips.

The Evil Queen.

“Holy crap,” Emma gasps.


End file.
